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Absolutely Revolting
Poem

Monja Blanca

‘Monja Blanca’ by Clive James

by Clive James •
October 2009, no. 315

The wild White Nun, rarest and loveliest
Of all her kind, takes form in the green shade
Deep in the forest. Streams of filtered light
Are tapped, distilled, and lavishly expressed
As petals. Her sweet hunger is displayed
By the labellum, set for bees in flight
To land on. In her well, the viscin gleams:
Mesmeric nectar, sticky stuff of dreams. 

 


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